THE state government has agreed to the establishment of Community Learning Centres (CLC) for children of Indonesian plantation workers.
Minister of Women, Early Childhood, and Community Well-being Development Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah said there are 16 registered CLCs with 890 children to date.
“The establishment of the CLCs is consistent with our emphasis on the basic rights of a child to education irrespective of their nationality,” she said in her ministerial winding-up speech during the State Legislative Assembly (DUN) sitting on today (May 23).
At the same time, Fatimah said her ministry is actively increasing awareness and advocacy on the issue of identification documents and the Temporary Identification Documents (DSITKS) through 115 series of outreach programmes such as Randau Pembangunan Sosial, Randau Solidariti Komuniti and Randau Kesejahteraan Komuniti among others.
“It is disheartening to see stateless children denied access to education, healthcare, and welfare services.
“As such, the state government had introduced the DSITKS initiative to enable these children to have access to education and healthcare.
“We would also like to recognise the good work done by Persatuan Destiny for Children in Sibu and Persatuan Pendidik D’Wira in Kuching for providing access to education for stateless children in Sarawak,” she said.
A total of 594 applications for DSITKS have been received as of April this year and 86 applications from the first group have been approved by the Premier’s Department.
